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Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Test Drive: An Excerpt

Because I just went through a major round of edits on Test Drive, the first in my Body Shop Bad Boys series coming in 2016, I thought I'd share an excerpt that shows Johnny Devlin and Lara Valley interact.

Johnny's had it bad for Lara from day one, but she's all too aware of his playboy ways. Still, he can't stay away when he sees her working at the bar.

Enjoy!
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“Uh huh.
Sure you weren’t asking him about Sue’s frame of mind?” Johnny teased. Over
Foley’s shoulder, he saw Lara smiling at a woman over the bar. His heart
stuttered, and he did his best to act cool, collected. She’s not interested. She’s a nice girl. Leave her alone.

Like
clockwork, his perverse, inner loudmouth had him offering to order the next
round. “Be right back. And remember,
don’t hate the player, hate the game—when I
win. Suckers.”

He left the
swearing table, grinning, and nabbed a free place at the crowded bar. Lara,
Sue, and a few others were hopping, grabbing drinks and pouring like mad.
Behind him he heard a scuffle break out, and he turned to see two guys who used
to be friends hammering on each other.

“That’s
rough,” a biker covered in tats next to him said. “But then, Jim should have
known better than to hit up Sheila with her new guy right there.”

“He really
needs to lay off the tequila.” Lara sounded exasperated. “I told Earl to keep
an eye on him.”

Johnny
turned and locked gazes with her. She had her long brown hair pulled back in a
familiar ponytail. The silky mass reached her lower back, and he was dying to
see her hair down just once. She wore minimal makeup, a bit of liner and some
thicker mascara. Growing up around women who glammed up for a living, he’d
learned early on about a woman’s trade secrets. But he doubted the red in her
cheeks came from blush. More like from the heat in the place. And damn, it
would have been nice if everyone around him cared about hygiene as much as he
did.

He wrinkled
his nose when a new guy replaced the one next to him and leaned toward Lara,
wafting his less than pleasant scent. Lara wiped her hand over her nose and
pretended a cough.

He and she
shared a grin, and his pulse galloped like a racehorse. The sight of her smile, and that
heart-stopping dimple, always made it hard for him to breathe. More than
physical beauty,
Lara possessed a warm inner core that got him hazy and drunk faster than a
hometown IPA.

She poured his
beer and handed him back a few bills. “You gave me a twenty. You sure about me
keeping all that change?” She was so sweet, so honest.

Way too good for you, Devlin. Leave her
alone.

The guy
belched, then pulled back ten, giving her a few bucks. “Thanks, honey. I’ll be
back.” He stumbled from the barstool which was quickly occupied by a new
customer. Thankfully, this one a woman who smelled like cheap perfume instead
of BO.

“What can I
get you, Johnny?”

He loved
hearing his name on Lara’s lips. She had a husky quality to her voice, and he
could too easily imagine it whispering her pleasure while he showed her why she
should take a chance on him. Foley thought he had oral foreplay down to a
science, but Johnny could have written a book on how to please women, a virtual
connoisseur by age sixteen.

He cleared
his throat and tried to will away his lecherous thoughts. “A pitcher for the
crew.” He nodded to the guys across the bar then leaned closer to her, to be
heard above the crowd. “So what’s with Sue? I hear she and Foley split.”

Lara rolled
her eyes. Of all the staff at Ray’s, she and Rena seemed the most level-headed.
No drama for them. “She’s pining for the guy. I warned her about him, but did
she listen to me?”

“Foley’s a
good guy.” He felt the need to defend his friend.

“Sure, but
he’s not a permanent guy. None of you
are,” she said with a direct gaze that aroused and annoyed him all at the same
time.

“Maybe we
just need to find the right woman.” He gave her the Devlin smile.

For a second
it looked like he might have connected with her, but then she laughed and
shoved his pitcher at him. “For you guys, there’s a right woman, and a left
woman, and a woman on the side…”

The woman
next to him laughed. “Seems like she’s got you pegged, sexy.”

He gave her
the Devlin smile and winked, and she stared at him, her lips parted. So at
least he hadn’t lost his magic. He took the pitcher from Lara and their fingers
brushed. He felt the tingle all the way to his cock and swallowed a groan.
Pasting on a sly grin, he said, “But Lara, if I had you, I wouldn’t need any of those others.” He drew her hand to his
mouth and kissed the back of it. “See you later, gorgeous. And you know, you
ever change your mind about mixing pleasure with pleasure, you have my number.”

“You mean
business with pleasure,” she corrected.

“Do I?” He
grinned and left, doing his best not to look over his shoulder at her, but it
was damn hard. Especially
when she laughed. The sound carried like windchimes, and he felt a shiver start
from his toes and work its way up his body. That hollow in his gut hit him,
because he had a crazy urge to go back to the
bar just to stare at her. Take in her joy with life.